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Conservative Corner: American dream?

By Nancy Carlton

I have one problem to deal with while writing my column today: I need lots more space - I need an entire page. Whew!
As a Republican, I am veritably jumping up and down in place, trying to encourage, urge, pester, and otherwise goad our “first Republican majority in 138 years” to follow through with the mission with which we entrusted them, and not be hornswoggled into caving to pressures from the establishment. They have done a good job with vital new laws to protect “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
As a board member of Arkansas Carry, I stay pretty buzzed about all the issues regarding our Second Amendment rights and the related bills that have been in the forefront of late. There has been real progress made in Arkansas on this issue, and I thank our legislators for doing the right thing.
However, on a national level, we have absolute predators stalking our rights to self-defense in the personages of Barack Obama, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a whole parade of pantywaists who believe that only the police and the military should be allowed to use the equipment that a true patriotic American can tell you is a God-given mechanism with which to guard the people that we hold most dear — our families.
The shortage of available firearms, and especially ammunition, has already become a common problem faced daily by people seeking to purchase self-defense items.
My friend and fellow Arkansas Carry board member, Nicholas Stehle, posted on Facebook:
“I walked into a gun shop and they had .22LR and .22 shorts on the shelf, both in small denominations and in large quantities. I bought two cases of .22LR. Then I woke up from my dream. Dang!”
I told him, “That’s the new American dream.”
Those of us who have been attempting to stock up somewhat on items that we know may soon no longer be legally available because of Obama’s war on the Second Amendment know that the shelves are already bare, the prices are higher on what is available, and America is watching to see if any Second Amendment rights will remain at all in a few months. The battle is on.
As a freedom-loving Conservative, I am aware that the Big Government vs. Small Government struggle is already in at least the “third quarter of the game” and the plan to totally tear down the republic and replace it with Socialism by those on the extreme left is being implemented bit by bit, using all the nasty moves and false arguments they can muster.
In the past, I have mentioned the book, “1984,” by George Orwell, as a good source of exposition of what an all-powerful government can do.
Also of immense value is “Animal Farm” by the same author, which shines a light on the actions of politicians vs. citizens.
However, in reading the new book by Stephen Moore, titled “Who’s the Fairest of Them All?,” I have come across excerpts from a Kurt Vonnegut story that dramatizes brilliantly what government does in its misguided quest to make everyone “equal.” It is an exaggeration, of course, but makes the point spendidly:
“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the Law. They were equal every which way.
Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.
All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”
The story is titled, “Harrison Bergeron”, from a collection called “Welcome to the Monkey House”.
In the world of Harrison Bergeron, the government forced each individual to wear “handicaps” to offset any advantage they had, so that everyone could be truly and fully equal. Beautiful people had to wear ugly masks to hide their good looks. The strong had to wear compensating weights to slow them down. Graceful dancers were burdened with bags of bird shot.
Harrison Bergeron was a very special individual. He was above average in every way. Seven feet tall, very intelligent, strong and blessed with abilities, he was a unique problem for the government handicappers. They impaired him with a huge set of earphones, eyeglasses with wavy lenses, and scrap metal hung all over him, to the point that he looked like a walking junkyard.
In the story, Harrison finally arrives at the place in his life where he rises up against his oppressors and tears away his encumbrances - to remarkable and astonishing results.
Sadly, in the story, the “Handicapper General” storms onto the scene and kills Harrison. No one must be allowed to break from the government, of course.
I beg you, patriots and lovers of freedom, we must stand our ground. Learn from the parable of Harrison Bergeron and the prophetic works of fiction that sound more like reality every day.

Nancy Carlton is a resident of Saline County. Her column appears each Wednesday in The Saline Courier.